@chribdotnet Can of chickpeas + a canful of water into a pan with two handfuls of pasta, 1/3 of a stock cube (depending on how salty they are) while that’s boiling, defrost frozen veggies, chop small, throw them in, dice up a courgette, throw in, and then LOTS of grated Parmesan.
The Libra constellation resembles scales.
The Latin ‘libra pondo’ means “a pound by weight.”
‘Pound’ is from ‘pondo,’ and ‘lb’ is an abbreviation of ‘libra.’
10 years ago the BBC did this version of God Only Knows with a whole long line of musicians and singers including Brian Wilson. Worth the time ... https://t.co/1XfnhLJS2H
On the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we thought we'd answer a question that's often asked,
"If they raised the Mary Rose, why not raise the Titanic?"
Allow our scaled diagram to explain...
Woman of the Day Julia Pirie born OTD 1918 Warwickshire, MI5 agent for 20 years. Cover story: typist. Her unassuming demeanour and matronly appearance masked a sharp intellect. When Barcelona police raided her flat in the 1970s (she was keeping tabs on the IRA at the time), she convinced them she was just a harmless English spinster.
In WW2, Julia joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry which provided women agents for the Special Operations Executive.
After the war, MI5 asked her to infiltrate the Communist Party of Great Britain as a typist. She became personal assistant to the General Secretary, accompanying him to regular meetings behind the Iron Curtain. The fact that she usually tried to avoid these "dreary" visits to the Eastern Bloc only reinforced her cover. Julia would pass regular reports and photocopies to her MI5 handlers during cricket matches at The Oval. It wasn’t a hardship; she enjoyed cricket.
In the 1970s, she was instructed to resign her Communist Party post and take on a new mission: collecting intelligence on the Provisional IRA during several missions in Europe.
Posing as a modest, elderly English spinster sightseeing abroad, Julia followed the Provisional IRA through several European countries collecting information about them, before renting a flat in Barcelona immediately below the one used as an IRA safe house and temporary storage for gold bullion supplied by Gaddafi. The whole operation was put at risk when Barcelona armed police mistakenly raided her flat, but she coolly maintained her cover and persuaded them they had the wrong person.
In the 1990s, after retiring from active operations, Julia lectured to groups of MI5 trainees and the police.
And the best bit? Until her death in September 2008 at the age of 90, the Communist Party continued to pay her pension each month from a bank in Italy.
There’s no known photo of her. Did you really think there would be?
@davvyk I took a photo with some of the soldiers and - as a tall person myself - I automatically checked behind me to make sure their faces would be in the photos but omg they are all 6’7 they are chosen for their height
@clhubes This is when I load up YouTube and some lovely aesthetic “work with me - Pomodoro technique” videos … (got me through some long days wfh last year!)